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Hey guys.
Working on a campaign with some friends. Had a question and had no idea how to search for it. Is there official format/offical header/official introduction for when different systems communicate within the imperium? Are all messages sent via astropath? How would that be formatted?

For example, my players are going to recieve messages from other sectors and subsectors controlled by the Imperium. How would those official printed documents look? Do they all start the same? Would they have the date on them? I assume, based on the few black library books that I've read, that the communication is pretty official. Any help would be appreciated, or if you could point me somewhere, I would be forever greatful.

Given that 40k does not have a uniform canon, I'd be careful with the term "official". However, I did notice that a certain format keeps popping up again and again throughout the material, usually presented as communique excerpts in various codices.

Here's an online example from the old Armageddon 3 website.

As you can see, the header includes the date (the exact system was explained in the 5E rulebook iirc), a reference (just make something up), as well as e-mail style sender/address/topic, finishing with the cliché "thought of the day".

For interplanetary communications, I also noticed an additional line on some transmissions that referred to "astropathic relays", though I'm hard pressed to find an actual example right now. I recommend consulting the 6E rulebook, as it had an entire section devoted to insterstellar/astropathic messages, including a detailed explanation on the drawbacks/complications of this system.

IIRC, the reference is simply a number attached to the message for administrative purposes.

GW and BL works seem to follow the format given in Lynata's link fairly consistantly so you could consider it standard enough for your purposes.


And yes, all messages are sent via Astropath. There is no other possable way of reliably communicating over hundreds of thousands of light years.

The date of the transmission is important because, depending on how far away the message is traveling, it could take decades or even hundreds of years for a message to get through.


The Imperium also doesn't always directly communicate with the eventual end point. A message going from Ultramar to Terra will probably go through several dozen Astropaths before it reaches Terra. They sort of daisy chain the messages from planet to planet.

All inter-system message sent via Astropath, yes. It's the only method of interstellar communication the Imperium has.

As for formatting, there's not official consistency here but usually (in codex's, background books, imperial armour books, etc.) It's:

*Date:
*Subject
*To: (name, location)
*From: (name, location)
*Message
*Though of the Day

Sometimes I've also seen it include the name of the Astropath who sent the message, and the astropath who recieved it.

Awesome! Thanks for the help guys. This was the first message I sent out!

+++DATE 4334222 M41
+++REF 1102/ARM/CTC
+++BY SERVITOR 331.11
+++TO RAST VIII PLANET:ROLANETARY SHIPPING
+++RE SHIPMENT EXPECTED

+++THOUGHT: THE MACHINE KNOWS NO HERESY
+++MESSAGE: THIRD ADVISEMENT OF NO SHIPMENT RECIEVED. SHIP IMMEDIATELY. RESPOND TO COMMUNICATION ATTEMPTS. BY THE ORDER OF FORGEWORLD JESNTON 11.

+++ASTROPATH 39.9910 AND 44444.2 LOST TO WARP BRAIN HEMORRHAGE AND CATASTROPHIC CEREBRAL HERNIATION DURING RELAY ATTEMPT.

+++MESSAGE NOT DELIVERED TO ASTROPATH, NO ASTROPATH TO RECIEVE COMMUNICATION. MESSAGE NO DELIVERED, FORWARD TO PLANETARY INVESTIGATORS, CONTACT ADEPTUS ASTARTES FOR FURTHER.

I've always seen it as sort of like a psychic telegram...

Intra-system communication may be possible with radio waves due to the short distances between planets/outposts. but inter-system communications require an astropath